#Perseverance finished work at Ypsilon Lake and drove ~55m to WSW along the (guessed) planned route, where it stopped and took some pictures. One of them is attached below.
@PaulHammond51
From earlier calculations, LOS will not be established until the rover comes close to the edge of the Fall River bank. That place is shown in maps of #Flight52 I posted earlier (see link). But the closer the two come the better the radio link will be, naturally.
And here is #Ingenuity's landing from #Flight51. The #MarsHelicopter stayed at that location for only 4 sols, enough to recharge its batteries and get new instructions for its next flight. It took us 63 days to get the message that it did in fact make that flight (#Flight52) right on schedule 😃 .
Two more color images from #Ingenuity's #Flight52 just dropped in. The #MarsHelicopter flew right over a small crater, which is visible in both images. The map shows the location and orientation of all 4 RTE images received so far from that flight.
It may be a little dated, but nonetheless it's nice to see the #MarsHelicopter marching ahead.
This is an image #Ingenuity captured on its last #Flight52 that just came down from the Red Planet. On the upper side is the terrain the heli will have to cross soon, when it takes off for its 53rd flight.
#Ingenuity flew #Flight52 back on April 26, 2023, but landed in deep radio shadow. No confirmation of the flight was received until June 28. 10 images were received on June 30.
#Ingenuity flew #Flight52 back on April 26, 2023, but landed in a radio darkness and no confirmation was received untill June 28. 10 frames from the flight were received on June 30.
Either #NASA had no idea #Ingenuity flew its #Flight52 right on schedule (was planned to take off on April 26, and did, as it appears now), or knew it and didn't say a thing before they got confirmation (today) that it had indeed landed.
Either #NASA had no idea #Ingenuity flew its #Flight52 right on schedule (was planned to take off on April 26, and did, as it appears now), or knew it and didn't say a thing before they got confirmation (today) that it had indeed landed.
Either #NASA had no idea #Ingenuity flew its #Flight52 right on schedule (was planned to take off on April 26, and did, as it appears now), or knew it and didn't say a thing before they got confirmation (June 28) that it had indeed landed.
@martiandennis
I bet there will be a telecom session with #Ingenuity scheduled for tosol, so that the two can exchange greetings, and maybe pass some instructions to the heli to perform a pirouette before #Flight52 🙂
Just a reminder:
The #MarsHelicopter technology demo would have been considered successful if it managed to complete 5 flights (see image with the original plan) on the Red Planet after its successful deployment on the surface. We are now waiting for its 52nd flight to take place.
The theater of operations for #Flight52 of #Ingenuity : up over Mount Julian and down into Fall River Pass.
The animation shows a map with some plausible paths for #Perseverance (green dashed lines), line-of-sight between the rover and the landed heli (red), visibility from the estimated landing location, ground profile, my old landing prediction (green), and the new estimate (yellow). The line-of-sight is obstructed by Mount Julian by 6-7m